One for the boys: Easy triple chocolate muffins

My husband has been complaining that recently I never bake him any cakes to eat; so after deciding to make a lemon drizzle cake for work I thought I would surprise him with one of his favourites… Chocolate muffins.
He has said that muffins are for men and the cupcakes for the ladies and I can kind of see his reasoning as muffins are heavy and usually undecorated and cupcakes are light, fluffy and beautifully decorated but as yet I haven’t found anyone to turn a cake down solely due to their gender!

I love to make muffins as they are so uncomplicated, easy to throw together and great for any time of the day… especially breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea…

I have been making this chocolate muffin recipe for a while now as it is so easy and simple to do and (as far as I can tell) impossible to get wrong. When making muffins, don’t be scared if the mix looks a little lumpy and isn’t smooth as a normal cake mix because this is completely fine. Try not to over work the mix as it will make the muffins a bit heavier, just mix enough till all of the ingredients combine – no need to beat the mixture for a while as they will still rise perfectly.
As they are triple chocolate muffins you need to use two different types of chocolate chips in it, usually it’s milk and white but sometimes it is dark and milk chocolate, whatever is your preference.
This time I decided to cut up half a small bar of dark chocolate to put into the mix, as I know it’s my husbands favourite type of chocolate and used milk chocolate chips.

For muffins, I like to use tulip wrappers as they give them quite a professional look. You can buy these from most shops now or eBay but I believe it is just as easy to make them yourself from a square of parchment paper pushed down into a muffin tray. Try and fill them up about 2/3rds. It is fine if they spill over the top when cooking as I think it is better to have really big muffins than small dainty ones.
When I was in Australia on holiday last year I was very impressed with the cakes they had there, especially the muffins – they were HUGE! I decided from then onwards that if I ever get to open my cake shop then the muffins will be just like the ones I had there.

Triple Chocolate muffins

This recipe makes 6 gigantic, 8 big, 10 good size or 12 small muffins – I usually make 10.

In a bowl put all of your dry ingredients, these are flour, cocoa powder, sugar and baking powder.
Mix your butter/margarine into the dry ingredients till all of the butter is blended in.

In a separate bowl measure your milk and beat into the milk the two eggs.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir till they just come together to make a sticky mix then stir in the chopped chocolate and chocolate chips. Remember at this stage not to overwork the mix.

Separate your mix into however many muffins cases you like, making sure you fill them about 2/3rds of the way up the cases.

Bake in the oven till a skewer comes out clean.
The time needed to cook them will depend on the size, use this as a guide and always bake for 20 minutes before opening the oven door:Small (12) – 20 – 25 Minutes Good size (10) – 25 – 30 Minutes Big (8) 35-40 Minutes Gigantic (6) 40 – 45 Minutes

Let them cool on a wire rack, the bottoms will feel a little soft when hot but they will set when cooled.